Dance of the Hours
by myloveimfaithfullyyours
Summary: When a ballerina is found gruesomely murdered, Castle and Beckett team up to investigate. Along the way, the case takes them out of the city, under cover, and pulls them closer together. Castle/Beckett, slow in beginning. Rated T for language. Please R&R!
1. Barre

a/n: Multi-chapter. Castle/Beckett. May take awhile to update. If you have any questions please ask me, like clarifications. Not beta read so I apologize on my behalf for mistakes.

Please review!

Dance of the Hours

The ballet wasn't really Kate Beckett's "thing." It wasn't etched into her planner anywhere, and she didn't have the special jewelry to wear to it. She had only gone to see "The Nutcracker" once with her parents, and now she could barely remember the story. She wasn't particularly interested into this type of art, watching girls and tutus and men in spandex dance around telling some cheesy tale. However, Kate wasn't watching the ballet out of enjoyment tonight; she was watching it because a case had come up involving the New York City Ballet, a very…gruesome case.

She had received the call late Friday night while in the middle of watching reruns of "Scrubs," the only thing on television. She had picked up just to find out that one of the soloists had been found dead in one of the studios.

Upon arrival, Beckett had discovered the body lying there, fish wire tied to her hands and feet and gently taped to the ceiling, like a puppet. She wore a white tutu probably from the upcoming show Swan Lake, the delicate feathers stained in blood. The dancer's pointe shoes tied neatly around her neck, the satin pink ribbons soaking in blood. Her eyes still open, a look of terror was visible across her face, and there were tearstains still on her cheeks. No doubt that this girl did not die peaceful death.

Castle had commented on how it took away from the innocence of the art.

The ballet director just laughed and said, "It's not an innocent art." He was the first they questioned.

Before the man had even said a word, he had made her angry inside. He acted as if this happened every single day, and he didn't really care about, as if she was just another dancer lost, because he could pluck another off the street at any moment. Beckett clenched her fists at her side, before Castle grabbed her hand, forcing her to release the fist.

She looked down at him, a questioning look on her face, but she didn't say anything, and she didn't let go. He looked bored, like a man painted from a photo, forever to remain that way. Empty, sullen and wrathful for eternity. Her nails dug into his palm, and he looked at her, she mouthed a 'sorry,' and proceeded into entering the interrogation room, releasing Castle's hand, now with her nail dents, both of them already missing the subtle feeling of warmth.

The man had been somewhere in his mid-fifties, slightly balding. He glared at both Beckett and Castle through his thick lenses; his arms remained crossed the whole time, he spoke in a monotone as if this was a part of his daily routine.

"Sir, do you know anything about this recent murder?" Beckett asked.

"Am I a suspect?" He asked, showing absolutely no emotion.

"Not officially, we just want to ask a few questions." Beckett changed her tone of voice, but kept her eyes fixed on the guy.

"How well did you know Nicolette?" Nicolette Burnstien, that was her name. She had recently turned twenty-seven years old and was scheduled to perform during the opening night of Swan Lake as the "white swan." She had no children, and no husband, and as far as they knew, no boyfriend either. Her life was strictly dance.

The station had records of her. She was went missing just several years ago, and was found late Christmas eve recently. There was no indication that she was kidnapped, so they police just figured she ran away, and decided to return. They couldn't hold anything against her because she was a full grown adult.

"Just as well as I knew the other dancers." He replied, his mouth barely moving.

"How well did you know the other dancers?" Castle jumped in.

The man looked at Castle, and then looked back at Detective Beckett, "Just as well as I knew Nicolette." He replied.

"Sir, this is not a game." Detective Beckett gritted her teeth in frustration. This was getting nowhere.

"Of course not, Detective, does the word 'interrogation' resemble the world 'game' at all?" He coughed slightly without covering his mouth, before letting his eyes dart from Castle to Beckett.

"No." Beckett answered honestly.

"Well then, I suggest you not accuse me of playing games, Detective and…" He motioned his hands up and down at Castle.

"Castle. My name is Richard Castle. I'm assisting Detective Beckett with the case."

"Did I ask?" The man's eyes went back to Beckett, awaiting the next question.

"Sir, how well did you know your dancers?"

"Not very well. We didn't make a point to meddle our ways into their personal lives. That would be exhaustively unnecessary, superfluous, it would be. Balanchine did not create the ballet so that we could get to know each other and make friends; this is a prestigious institution, a classical art, not Barney. Balanchine's purpose was strictly related to dance." He briefly paused, shrugging his shoulders.

"You must know something about the dancers, when they auditioned for the company…" Beckett trailed off.

"Our dancers are handpicked. Each and every one of them. We don't ask about their lives, because frankly, we do not care. If they're good, and have a massive amount of potential, they're in. If they don't, well it's really quite simple, darling, they're out. Detective, and the assistant, is it really that hard to comprehend?"

"Where were you between the hours of three and six a.m, last Thursday?" Beckett's eyes were beginning to get tired of glaring at this man. The M.E. had verified that the death had taken place at that time. Her throat was slit, explaining the blood stain on the ribbons of the toe shoes. The killer was careful, because he or she left no evidence behind, like a shadow vanishing into the darkness with time.

"Where most people are between the hours of three and six a.m, asleep."

"Do you have anybody that can verify that?"

"You mean, does anybody watch me sleep, or do I have stalkers? No. Listen, Detective, if you really want to find out more information, ask the other dancers; they may not all be friends, but they gossip. They know at least something about each other being cooped up in a studio for hours." He sat back in his chair and relaxed his shoulders, finally averting his gaze from the Detective.

Several hours later, the case wasn't exactly taking flight. They had questioned several dancers who simply mentioned that she was an amazing dancer, and nothing more. They even talked to a couple youth students, who just gasped when they heard the name and giggled, and some even talked about how they wanted to be just like her one day. Of course, not anymore.

It was after lunch when they decided to go observe class, the teacher had not been so keen on it, but had eventually allowed them to pull up two very uncomfortable metal chairs and watch the class.

Before the music even began, Richard Castle could only think of one thing, "This was his idea of hell."

He watched as the dancers were basically put on show for the teachers to see in their skin tight navy blue leotards. Their hair pulled up in tight buns, pointe shoes strapped tightly to their feet. The teacher flipped through CD's on the side of the massive studio as some of the dancers' conversated, and stretched.

He winced as he watched them all slide into splits in all directions, pressing their bellybutton's to the floor.

"I should date a ballerina, they're rather flexible." He commented, leaning into speak to the detective without being heard. She made no comment, but set aside a heart beat to roll her eyes.

"Let's begin." The teacher clapped her hands, and Castle pulled out his notepad, prepared to jot down notes whenever needed. She was somewhere in her mid fifties, her grey hair pulled back into a tight bun, just like her dancers.

"Balancoires, in attitude, loosen the hip, sixteen, sous-sus, soutenu, easy, no mistakes, no toe boxes, you know the drill." She turned around and turned on the music, not bothering to clarify.

The dancers stood in a solid first position, their heads tilted up at a certain angle, Castle noted that they all looked so focused, but still the smallest of smiles was visible on their pursed lips. They had pride in what they did.

As the hour went on, Castle watched the dancers twist their bodies into positions he never really imagined possible beyond the Olympics. There was no suspicious behavior. Slightly bored, he reached over and grabbed Beckett's hand again, like earlier, gripping her thin fingers tightly, squeezing them. She looked up, but like before didn't protest.

He leaned over and whispered in her ear, "How do they get their legs up so high?"

"Castle, they dance everyday. They probably have since they were ten years old."

"Hey, look at that girl right there." He pointed to a girl, seemingly younger than some of the students, with fishing wire tied around her wrists.

"What would she have that for?" Beckett asked, looking carefully at the younger girl's thin wrists.

"She doesn't seem like the criminal mastermind does she?"

"No, but she might know something." Beckett thought about standing up from her chair, but thought better of it, walking across the room from this across the floor combination was probably not the brightest idea.

She slouched back in her chair, and leaned into Castle, incidentally slipping her hand into his, which was resting on his lap. "Maybe she was making a bracelet." She said.

"Now who's the one with the theories?" He commented, snorting.

"It's not a theory, Castle." She sighed in annoyance.

"Then what is it, Detective, a hypothesis, an educated guess?" He said, almost sarcastically.

"They're the same thing, and I'm just listing our options."

"How come you're allowed to do that, and when I list options, you bite my ass about evidence?" He tilted his head as one of the dancers practically glared at him before returning her gaze back to the teacher who was giving the student with fishing wire a correction. A harsh correction.

"Is that what I asked for, Lily?" The teacher was practically yelling.

"No, Ms. Kirsten." The student responded.

"I asked for a triple. Did you not hear me? Do you have hearing problems? Are you legs disconnected from your brain? Were you brainwashed after being a studio with Nicolette for hours?" As she listed, her calm yelling became violent screeching.

"No ma'am." She replied. So she had known Nicolette. All Kate had to do was to figure out how much she knew about their victim…or rather, did she commit the murder.

"Ms. Kirsten, I'm sorry to interrupt, but I heard a rumor that Nicolette opted out of the next show." Another student with dark skin, and dark eyes brought up. So they hadn't even told their students.

"She didn't opt out." Lily replied, her voice gaining defensiveness.

"This is not a time to be discussing rumors, and if she did back down, Christina, it wouldn't be the first time." The teacher's eyebrows were raised, her eyes narrowing.

"She didn't back out, okay, she was murdered, she can't perform in the damn show if she's dead." She raised her voice. Several gasps filled the room, echoing off the mirrors as the teachers eyes widened in shock.

"That's it, Lily, I don't know what's wrong with you today, but I'm asking you to leave class until you are composed, tu comprendes?"

"You know what's wrong, two of my friends have died this year, and I have to go to rehearsal everyday, that's what's wrong. Tu comprendes?" She raised her hands in the air, grabbed her bag and stormed out, Beckett and Castle following close behind.

"Excuse me!" Beckett called out, walking behind the girl.

"Lily!" Castle tried her name, which got her attention.

She turned around, her hazel eyes meeting with Castles, "if you're here to tell me how much I suck, go ahead, if you're here to tell me how lucky I am, fuck off, and if you're here…"

"Detective Beckett, NYPD, we need to ask you a few questions regarding Nicolette murder." She cut the girl off mid sentence.

"Fine. But let me," she gestured to her pointe shoes, "take these off." Kate nodded, watching the girl sit down on a near by bench to remove her toe shoes. She watched her take them off, carefully, and then reached over to massage her toes which were bleeding.

"Yikes, does this happen all the time?" Kate asked, motioning to the blood staining the toe-pads.

"No. It started happening when rehearsals with your victim started, I started dancing twice as much as the girls in there." She nodded her head in the direction of the studio they were in a moment ago.

"What do you mean?" Kate asked, being careful around the girl.

"We all audition for our parts, Detective; they're not handed to us on a plate. This year, I did a pretty good audition I guess, because they're letting me train as an understudy in the company show, Swan Lake, because of that I dance twice as much." She removed her other shoe, and pressed on her toes a little more.

"What did you mean when you said that you had already lost another friend?" Kate asked, feeling something slip around her shoulders. She realized it was Castle, and shrugged her shoulders to give him the hint to let her go, but either didn't take notice of it or ignored it completely, because he just let his arms hang there, but luckily, Lily didn't seem to care at all.

"Earlier in the year, we lost one of our apprentice members, her name was Inamura, it was early in the year, when we members of our level auditioned for the apprentice program. There were two spots left, and three girls they were debating on giving the spot to. Ina was one of them, Christina one, and I was the other." She paused.

"Who got it?" Castle's voice chimed in as he leaned his head down on Kate's shoulders, resting his cheek against hers. She scowled in annoyance, and pushed his head away slightly with her hands.

"Christina and I got the spot, but Ina wasn't happy about it. Originally, I thought she would get over it, but I guess she didn't. Her mom was a former NYCB dancer and left her and her dad at a when Ina was still young. Her dad, well he had some kind of visceral cancer, and he always loved ballet. He wanted to see his daughter perform so badly with the company, but he didn't have much time left. She was so close…but when she didn't get in, well, she put a bullet to her head." Lily's eyes went up to the ceiling, waiting for something to fall from the heavens.

"When did you meet Nicolette?" Beckett asked.

"Early February, when rehearsals started, she was cast as the 'white swan,' and I was an understudy for the 'black swan,' she mentioned she knew who my mother was, and said it must suck to be me."

"Why would it suck?" Castle asked, un-looping's his arms from around Detective Beckett and instead, grabbing an empty spot next to her.

"My mom was a dancer here, and they expect the talent to be passed on." She shrugged.

"Why do you have fishing wire tied around your wrists?" Kate pointed out.

"It was for an art project." She answered, lifting her wrist.

"An art project?"

"An art project." She confirmed. Kate thought about it, it was believable, she guessed, she looked at Castle, who didn't have anything to say.

"Do you know anybody who would have wanted Nicolette dead?"

"Not really. I knew people who disliked her, who were jealous of her, but none of the wanted her dead. At least I don't think. If you want to see or talk to some of the dancers, just come backstage after tonight's performance." She got up, and started to walk away.

"Here." She walked back, and handed them two tickets, before strutting away again.

The action led to where she was now, sitting in the second row of the audience, watching the black swan dance, a mask painted across her eyes her black tutu fluttering around with her every movement. For what felt like the millionth time today, Castle's hand was resting on top of hers for a good portion of the show. His fingers caressed hers every now and then, but like most, the movements were inconspicuous.

Kate's eyes followed the graceful dancer as she swung her leg up, or was lifted into the air by her partner, the dancer turned around. Blood oozed from a deep cut in her back that the dancer didn't seem to notice. The red trickled down onto the black tutu, and some of the audience members choked on their on saliva, coughing and sputtering, fanning themselves with their programs or their hands.

The dancer's partner was first to take notice of the blood as when he put set her down gently. He glanced briefly at his hands, but continued on as if nothing had happened. The swan, continued as well, smiling brightly, undisturbed by the fact that her black was bleeding.

Suddenly she stopped. Her hands fell to her side, and her leg could not stay in the arabesque. She collapsed to the floor, hitting the stage loudly, causing the audience members to stand, and get a better look, it was long before the curtains came down, and the commotion began.

The Detective and Castle found their way backstage to where the dancers had gathered around her body.

"The costume." A lady whisper-shouted, her hands flying up to her mouth.

"Get Lily, they're in the middle of the pas, she can finish it." Another woman whispered, sending a member of the stage crew away. Several people bustled around her, unfastening the sides of her tutu, taking it off of her and leaving her in the skin colored leotard. Lily arrived. People running behind her, spraying her hair with loads of hairspray, and rubbing gel all over it as well.

"Hey." She said in a monotone, slipping into the black leotard.

"You understand this could be messing up a crime scene." Kate notified the people who took the costume off the original black swan.

"It's not a crime scene. She just probably ran into something sharp backstage. That's all." The lady said, turning to Lily, and hurrying to fasten the sides again. Shoving her out into a wing, the curtains raised again, with a slight applause, and indeed the show went on.

It was late when the show finally ended. They had gotten no more information out of anybody.

"Do you think she 'ran into something sharp backstage.'?" Castle asked as they drove back.

"No. I don't, but we don't have any proof, they don't care either. Did you hear that woman? The tutu was worth more."

"It was because she thought that she was just clumsy and ran into something sharp." Castle clarified. They arrived at Beckett's apartment, she began to get out the car, but Castle followed.

"Castle, what do you think you're doing?" She questioned.

"Uh, walking you up to your apartment. Besides, who knows, maybe you'll run into something sharp." He said sarcastically.

"Castle." She began, but she decided with this much energy, the argument would get nowhere. She turned around and started walking briskly towards the door, but she was stopped when she bumped into Lily.

"Lily, what are you doing here?" She asked, slightly baffled that the girl had just showed up at her apartment in the middle of the night.

"Nicolette isn't her real name." Lily looked gravely at Castle, her head hung in shame for no particular reason. "I was going to tell you earlier," she continued, "but it just wasn't safe in the studio. I know you're going to ask, so I'll just tell you, she went missing just several years ago, under the name Gianna Lyon. Goodnight." She didn't elaborate, and within seconds she was gone.

"Get in the car." Beckett ordered Castle the moment the girl had vanished.

"Are we chasing after her?" He looked around frantically before sliding into the passenger seat of the car.

"No. We're going to go through missing person files. We'll just take them back to your place. It's bigger…and we'll just look through a couple tonight." Secretly, she wanted just to spend more time just with him. She stuck the key forcefully into the ignition before jetting off into the chaotic streets of New York.

Back at the precinct, Kate had stacked boxes of missing person files into the backseat of Castle's car. Even though she wanted a good opportunity to flirt while not on the job, she was still eager to look through some of the files and find this "Nicolette," or rather, "Gianna."

"Kate, you said a few." Castle muttered in annoyance.

"It's Beckett, and this is a few." She paused to cram several more boxes in there.

"Beckett! Beckett! Kate! Katherine!" Castle shouted in protest as she crammed several more cardboard boxes inside.

"Okay, that's it, Castle." She wiped her hands on her pants and they set back to his apartment. He looked at her, his mouth agape, and walked over to the other side of the car, and got into the passenger seat. They drove in silence until they reached Castle's apartment, looming over the depleted streets right below. No words were exchanged as they walked through the door of the building and made a beeline for the elevators.

"Kate, could you please." Castle tried to get his pinky to hit the 'up' button on the elevator.

"Castle," She huffed, peering around her tower of boxes to get a better look at him. "Do you honestly _think _I can reach that button?"

"Doorman!" Castle calls, careful not to trip over his own feet. The doorman scrambled over, and hit the "up" button for the both of them before shuffling away again. The elevator was cramped, it was obviously big enough for the both of them, but plus the boxes, the two had to angle themselves to fit properly without causing any serious injuries.

"Castle." Beckett began, trying to get out of the sliding elevator doors as soon as they had reached their floor.

"If you're going to go, go!" Even Richard was just a bit agitated; twelve stories up never seemed like such an uncomfortable ride.

"I can't, your fricken' ass is in the way!" She said, and she wasn't lying. Trying to squeeze between the door and Castle's backside was nearly impossible unless you were as thin as a stick.

"You're skinny; just suck your stomach in!" Castle pouted, his arms beginning to get tired from the mount of boxes in his hands.

"Why don't you!" She argued, gritting her teeth.

"I can't!" He groaned.

"Well, stop bitching and try!"

"Let's just, go at the same time, okay?" He suggested. Inhaling deeply, Kate began to force her way towards the elevator, knocking Castle, and the boxes all over along the way. Immediately, Kate toppled over onto Castle her legs tangled in his, the elevator was constantly "ding-ing" notifying them that they had arrived on their floor.

"Jesus! You're like a little Detective tornado!" He shouted, trying to un-pin his arm from underneath a box of files.

"Yeah, well you're something between a whale and a narwhal." She struggled trying to free her arm from underneath his ass.

"Is PDA necessary?" An old woman walked by, trying to hit the down button the elevator, shaking her head side to side, her green earrings swaying with it.

"I, uh, erg." Kate stood up briskly, avoiding the old woman who was now going on about young couples and the need to be affectionate in front of others. She collected her boxes, and pulled Castle to his feet. She shoved several boxes in his hands.

"Here." She said gruffly.

"Are you even listening to me young lady? No, of course your not, too busy dreaming up other things you could be doing with your man. Well, let me tell you something little girl," she stopped, seeing that both of them were now facing her, boxes piled up high, their heads cocked to the side so they could actually see the petit woman.

"Yes?" Castle asked, smirking.

"Oh never mind, intuition tells me your meant to be anyway, tangle tongues all you want in public, just somewhere where nobody else will see." She sauntered back to the elevator, unaware that her words made no sense. The doors closed, and Kate and Rick both looked at each other, no longer able to contain their laughter.

"What was she talking about?" Castle asked as they laughed their way back this apartment.

"I have no idea, but never do that again." She emphasized never, and pushed passed him with her body to get through the door as soon as he unlocked it.

"Aw, you know you liked it." He teased. She rolled her eyes, and thought, if it wasn't on the carpet it would be much better. She shook her head violently, trying to rid the thoughts from flooding her brain.

"Uh, I'd say we work in my office, but I have a good feeling we're not going to be able to see the floor in there." He pushed open the door to the office with one hand, revealing a dimly lit room with a sea of papers. She looked up at him, her brows furrowing.

"Bedroom?" He offered, eyes wandering in the direction of his bedroom.

"If we have no choice." She marched on ahead, turning around to push open the door with her backside.

The room was adorned with a huge bed draped in something white and silky. The window was opened, the off-white curtains blowing lightly in the wind. Lights sparkled off in the distance, a busy scene compared to the room.

"You sleep to that every night?" She put down the boxes, and put her hands on her sore back, pointing on finger towards the window.

"Yeah, what do you sleep to?" He asked, making his way towards the door.

"Definitely not that." She leaned against the doorframe.

"You get started, I'll be…right back." He turned around and walked back down the hallway, leaving Kate standing in the middle of the bedroom, opening up the top to one of the boxes.

She smiled to herself, knowing he was no longer in the room, "maybe this will be something I'm used to someday." She thought to herself.

"Whatchu thinking about?" He came up behind her, reaching for one of the labeled manila folders with one hand, and handing her a glass of red wine with the other.

"Nothing." She replied, quickly, her eyes quickly scanning the information written on the document before setting it aside.

"No?" Castle asked.

"I'm not a magician, Castle." She commented, scoffing slightly.

The night went on. They never bothered to close the window, and looking through case files began to get more tedious by the second. Finally, Castle settled on asking Kate 'would you rather' questions. He figured she wouldn't really object considering the number of bottles they'd already been through.

"Would you rather…see your future or your past?" He asked, taking a sip out of his glass.

"Past." She said, mirroring his actions,

"Why?" He asked.

"Because everything was so simple back then."

"Not every childhood is simple, Beckett." Castle pointed out.

"Fine. What about you?" She asked, swirling and swishing the sticky liquid in her glass.

"Future." He replied easily.

"Why?"

"Because, Beckett, the past is the past, no reason to dwell on it. There's so much more of the world to see, you know? Besides, my past wasn't something I'd want to relive anyway." He smirked.

"Would you rather…give up sweets and caffeine for the rest of your life or never see me ever again?" She asked.

"That's not a fair question." He whined.

"You don't seem like the whole 'play fair' type."

"You're right, I'm not, and…such a tough decision…" he put his hand under his chin to exaggerate the difficulty. Kate hit him playfully.

"Well see, without my sweets and caffeine, I might as well be 'Sleeping Beauty,' without you…well…" he smiled.

"Oh, just answer it."

"Let's just say, something would be missing." He watched as her lips turned up into a small smile.

"I can name a song for every moment." He bragged, tossing another file in the 'no' pile.

"Really?" She raised her eyebrows.

"Really." He confirmed.

"Name a song for right now." She put down her file to get a better look at him.

He thought for a split second, the cute thinking look taking the place of his bragging look on his face. "Umbrella, Rihanna" He replied.

"Seriously?"

"Seriously."

"Okay, song to describe yours truly." Kate grinned.

"Easy, 'Vulnerable, Secondhand Serenade."

"Never heard it." She shrugged.

The 'no' pile of their files grew, and sitting on the floor began to make their tailbones hurt, so naturally, they both relocated to his bed. The softness of the mattress caused them both to loose interesting the case files, and take interest into catching some sleep.

Neither of them suggested it though, but eventually their eyelids felt heavy and they could no longer focus on the photographs and print they were looking at or reading.

Beckett was first to fall asleep on top of the covers. Her back turned towards Castle clutching one of the files to her stomach. Castle made an effort to through thin blanket over her shoulders before finally giving in himself.

He lay down on his side, facing Kate's back, and closed his eyes. His eyelids fluttered open not long after feeling something cuddle into his chest. Breathing in Kate's scent, his arm found its way around to her lower back, his fingers quietly resting there.

Within seconds of contact with her lower back, her leg swung over his, and he had no reason to object, so he turned out the light beside him, closed his eyes, and drifted off, clutching the Kate close to him like she was his last resort to life.

She smiled half consciously when the lights went out, crawling as close as she could get, pressing her hands to his chest.

Her thoughts became murkier as deep sleep came closer, but she took a moment to think, "Solving this case is going to be fun," before letting sleep completely take over.


	2. Grand Battment

a/n: In case you're wondering about the chapter titles, it's like a whole bunch of ballet vocabulary.

Fun fact: Some of these characters are actually based on people I know. For example, the old grouchy lady: the costume manager is always screaming at us during costume fittings, "stop touching the costume, you'll get finger oil all over it!" all that bad with the German accent.

Thanks for all the reviews, keep them coming!

I got a suggestion to slow down on some of the "fluff," I will in this chapter, it did feel rushed. But don't worry; it'll come back in later chapters.

Full summary: (brief note: I was going to put this in the first chapter, but I forgot. Oops.)

Castle and Beckett receive a gruesome case involving a New York City Ballet dancer. With this, opens up the world of the "high art" of ballet. They're driven outside of New York, and closer together as the case goes on.

Anyway, thanks again for all those who reviewed and here goes nothing…

Chapter Two: 

"**In ballet a complicated story is impossible to tell... we can't dance synonyms." **

**- George Balanchine.**

Castle awoke when rays of sunshine flooded through the window they left open last night. He felt around, trying to find they body he fell asleep with last night, but had no luck. Groaning, his eyelids flew open, wondering where she had gone. He sat up momentarily, his eyes scanning the bedroom for clues. He noticed that the boxes had been stacked up, all the files neatly placed back into them. There was a post-it note attached on the lid of the box on the very top.

He sunk back into his pillows and held his hand out, trying to get the post-it note to come to him by magic.

"Uhhhahguh…dammit, where's Harry Potter when you need him?" Castle grumbled.

"Are you looking for something, dad?" Alexis came into the room, amused that her dad was trying to levitate something towards himself.

"Yeah, actually, could you hand me that post-it note?" His daughter rolled her eyes.

"It says, 'I found it, show up at the precinct as soon as possible. – Beckett.'" She read.

"Uhhahguh…"

"This is not the time to be inventing new words." Alexis grinned.

"You heading off to California today, huh?" He asked. Alexis's school had organized a college tour program, and several of the students were gong to go see Berkeley.

"Yeah." She replied, her voice distanced.

"Aww. Don't miss me too much." He said, smirking.

"I'll try." She said back, grinning from ear to ear.

"Hey, be safe." He said, putting on his 'father voice.'

"I will! After I promise to get in lots and lots of trouble!"

"Uhhahguh…" He said again, this time, grabbing Alexis and tickling her.

"Da-dad!" She said between laughs. His phone rang playing some offbeat tune he had downloaded somewhere online.

"Castle." He picked up.

"Yo, Castle man, you have got to get here." Esposito said, his voice loud and clear despite the early hour.

"What's going on?" He asked, rising out of bed slowly.

"Just get to the ballet school." The other line clicked, indicating that he had hung up. Castle stood up, tickling his daughter out of the room before shutting the door and getting dressed. Thoughts about the previous night ran through is mind as he brushed his teeth, but he knew that the incident wouldn't be brought up anytime soon, meaning absolutely not today. He came outside, only to be greeted by his mother.

"Mother, aren't you normally asleep at this time, it's not nearly noon yet."

"Son, I can't sleep my whole life away you know…" She exaggerated with hand movements.

"Listen, we have this ah-mazing case. We're going to have so much to talk about tonight." He waved his hands enthusiastically in the air.

"What, what's this case about? Supermodel?" His mother questioned.

"Grandma, why does it always have to be 'supermodels' and 'popstars' and occasionally 'rockstars,' why can't you just list off normal women?" Alexis popped her head into the room, joining into the conversation and offering her dad a cup of coffee and a piece of toast.

"Because, sweetie, those are the kind of women he's interested into." Martha answered.

"That's not necessarily true." He countered.

"Right. It's all female specimens." Martha continued.

"No, it's not, but I don't have a 'type' either." He took a bite of his toast.

"Right, right, now that Detective Beckett's in the picture. Just promise me you won't get blue balls, men whine about that way too much." Martha walked out, leaving Alexis slightly red, and Castle with an annoyed look on his face.

The ballet school could be scene from a mile and half away. The yellow tape lining the front door of the studio and men and women in black uniforms bustling around questioning students who were either going towards or away from the entrance.

Castle made his way up the steps and waved to Esposito on the other side of the tape who motioned for the officer to let Castle through.

"What happened here?" Castle asked, glancing around him at his chaotic surroundings.

"Um, homicide?" Ryan jumped in, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"This case is probably spicier than even Beckett likes it." Esposito said. At this, Castle's eyebrows shot up, he left the other Detectives and made his way over to the scene. Lanie was kneeling somewhere by the crime scene, a disgusted look resting on her usually calm face.

He walked around to get a look for himself and noticed that the victim had been chopped up into pieces scattered around the studio floor. He turned around briefly and took a deep breath through his mouth, avoiding the scent of blood wafting in the hot air.

"What happened?" He tried to sound tranquil, but the attempt failed greatly. Officers standing around turned to look at him, but didn't answer his question.

He walked around to the other side, looking down at the body again. The victim was somewhere in his late teens, lying there, his eyes resembling the other victim's, stoned to the ceiling. His mouth was still slightly open, and his hair coated in shards of dried blood.

Castle tilted his head, noticing the print on the victim's right cheek. He opened his mouth to speak, but didn't when he realized nobody was listening to him, and it was pointless to talk to himself. He stood there motionless for a moment or two before he noticed that the sea of uniforms had diverted in different directions.

"Castle." Castle turned around hearing his name to face Detective Beckett who was indirectly telling to him to move.

"Oh, ew." Even she could help it, she looked at the body, grimaced, and looked back down at it, or rather the parts of it.

"I know right?" Castle chimed.

"Lanie, what's the status?" She ignored his comment and jumped right into business.

"No ID, which I expected considering he wasn't wearing pants with pockets…" She replied.

"No surprise, he's in costume?" Kate asked.

"I believe so, but I wouldn't be the one to ask. He's somewhere between eighteen and nineteen. Killed by a sharp blow of some sort in the head." She motioned to the area on his head.

"He has writing on his right cheek." Castle turned to Kate, and pointed his finger to the side of his face pressed against the floor.

"Turn him over." Beckett directed, watching as the M.E. shoved the man gently to move him over.

"Get pictures." She directed, kneeling down to get a better look at the smudged writing herself.

"'_Even Balanchine couldn't tell this story._'" Castle read, before Beckett could even make out the first letter.

"Castle?" She questioned him.

"It's not that hard to read, Detective. A little smudged, looks like it was written in eyeliner…"

"It's written in charcoal, I think, but I'll have to test it to know for sure." Lanie answered from the side.

"Damn. Come to class bright and early, and find someone dead, what kind of set up is this?" A voice came from behind them. The voice came from a young boy who looked about sixteen or seventeen with dirty blonde hair. He had a tall stature, and was carrying nothing but a duffle bag.

"Not a set up. You know him?" Beckett asked, turning herself around to face the boy.

"Yeah." He replied.

"How?" She asked again.

"Dude, lady, don't I need a lawyer or something?" He asked.

"Not unless you need to be defended for committing the crime." Suspicion rose in her voice.

"I'm talking about your attitude." He scoffed.

"Sorry about her, it's first thing in the morning." Castle replied, pulling her a little further away by her shoulders, causing her to scowl.

"And I'm sorry about him, Detective and Mr. Castle." A feminine voice came from behind the boy who was speaking. Lily had crept up behind the boy and grabbed his hands, lacing her fingers through his.

"Lily. Good morning." Detective Beckett greeted.

"Morning to you too, Detective, and Mr. Castle. I'm sorry about my boyfriend. This is Jonathan, he hasn't had his caffeine yet." She cocked her head up and her green eyes met his blue ones.

"Castle? Like, Richard Castle?" Another girl approached, her straight black hair reaching her lower back. Castle recognized her from the day before in the studio. The only difference was that her hair wasn't pulled back into a bun.

"Yeah, like Richard Castle." He smiled.

"The novelist?" Jonathan asked.

"Yeah. Heard of me?" Castle looked rather pleased with himself.

"_Much too early for this."_ Detective Beckett thought to herself.

"Yeah. I'm a fan." The girl with the black hair reached into her book bag and pulled out a copy of one of his books.

"This is Emma." Lily introduced the fan girl.

"Pleased to meet you, Emma." Castle held out his hand for her to shake and she squealed quietly.

"Listen, I know you're busy and all, but could you…" She pulled out a pen. Usually, Beckett would have a little more patience for this, but this time she didn't. People were dying, and they didn't even have a single suspect yet.

"He'll sign under one condition." Beckett crossed her arms defensively, standing in front of Castle making eye contact with Emma.

"Gosh, what are you like his keeper or something? Whatever, as long as I don't end up like that," she gestured to the body, but didn't seem disgusted. "What do you want?" The girl asked clicking her pen unmistakably annoyed.

"Just tell us who this is." She motioned to the body with her hands.

"Jason Parvez Acorde." Lily responded for her.

"How do you know him?"

"Uhm, well, he's one of my ex-boyfriends." She replied, noting the awkward look in Jonathan's eyes.

"Did he have any enemies?" Beckett continued.

"Hey, I thought that all we had to do was give you his name, can he sign my book now, please, because I honestly have to get to class." Emma interrupted. Sighing quickly, Beckett moved aside to allow Castle to sign the girl's book. She flashed a bright smile at him, and then vanished into the crowd of students leaving Lily and Jonathan behind.

"I should get to class." Lily said, stepping on her tip-toes and placing a kiss on her boyfriend's cheek before vanishing after Emma.

"Did you know Jason, Jonathan?" Castle asked the boy who was now standing alone like he was less then ten minutes ago.

"Yeah, we went to middle school together, auditioned together, got in together, and took classes together. I mean, we weren't gay or anything, we were pretty good friends. I would know if he had any enemies." He went back to answering Beckett's prior question.

"Did you know Nicolette Burnstien?" Beckett asked.

"Nicolette, the company member right? I remember Lily used to talk about her and something about stunning turn out. I didn't know her personally no, but I saw her around. Hold up – you used past tense…do you mean Nicolette's dead, or did she run off again?"

"So you knew that she ran off before?"

"Yeah, I mean, Lily knew and then she told me, and yeah." He replied.

"Is Lily the only one she told?" Castle asked.

"I don't know. Like I said, I barely knew her. Why aren't you questioning Lil', they knew each other better than I knew her."

"We already talked to Lily. How well did Lily know Jason?" Beckett inquired.

"Well they went out for awhile…they weren't like super close or anything."

"How long did they go out for?"

"Like six and half months, why?"

"Six and half months…that's pretty long for a high school relationship." Castle looked at Beckett.

"So Lily knew both of our victims pretty well didn't she…did she like to tell stories?"

"I thought Detectives were supposed to connect everything together. Stories? Like bedtime stories to little kids…or oral tradition? That's so random, but it's certainly not how she spends her weekends if that's what you're wondering."

"Okay, thanks, I think you'd better head to class now. Thanks for all your help." Beckett turned on her heel, Castle following right behind, leaving the young boy confused as hell.

They walked through the campus, observing students who walked by carrying school books, backpacks slung across their shoulders.

"Do you think we grilled Lily enough?" Castle asked as they walked.

"I don't know. For now, I think we should leave her out of it." Beckett replied.

"She seems like the main connection between the two victims." Castle countered.

"I don't think she did it." Beckett answered honestly. Castle was silent. "We'll have to see who else is involved, I figured people on campus might know her better because she spends most of the year here. We'll go see her parents as soon as I take a look at the stage."

"You are one spontaneous detective." Castle said jokingly, following her towards the stage.

"I'm not spontaneous." She contested, speed walking while talking.

"Then what are you, Kate?" She stopped, and he ran into her.

"Detective Kate Beckett, NYPD, we'd like to ask you a few questions about last night." She held up her badge to show the man she was facing without any further regard to Castle's comment.

"About?" The man had a gruff voice. His hair was coated in a thick layer of dust.

"Did you know a 'Jason Acorde,' or a 'Nicolette Burnstien'?"

"No." The man quickly responded, bending over to mess with some of the power cords resting on the stage floor.

"What about the girl who got into the accident last night?" She pushed for a useful answer.

"What accident?" He asked.

"Are you stage manager?"

"Yes, but that doesn't mean I'm friendly with everybody who comes in and out of here." He stood up, cracking his back before bending over again and playing with some of the wires attached to an outlet.

"Did you not hear about the accident last night?"

"No." He replied.

"The black swan ran into something sharp backstage." Kate explained to him.

"That's not really possible." He said from the ground.

"Why not?" Castle asked.

"Because it's just not. There are people everywhere backstage, and besides, nothing sharp sticking out of corners."

"That doesn't make any sense."

"Yeah, well most of life doesn't." He stood up from his crouched position and looked at the Detective.

"Our job is to try to make things make sense." Beckett looked at the guy, to be honest, he didn't look more than twenty-four years old.

"Did the director say anything to you about the incident at all?"

"Christian Routini? Of course not. In fact, he was yelling at me like at like four a.m. last Thursday about making sure the stage was safe, like baby proof." The stage manager shrugged.

"Last Thursday? Baby proof?"

"Yeah. Like, make sure one of the dancers doesn't knock the curtain down or something. It's happened before. Are we done, because I got to get back to work before someone comes and kills me…erg, sorry bad use of words." He grabbed a bag, and left without another word.

"Someone's alibi is broken." Castle said.

"Thank you, captain obvious." Kate rolled her eyes.

"So are we going to question this Mr. Routini?"

"No. We're going to see Nicolette's parents and then Jason's parents." She responded, before making her way backstage.

"Spontaneous…but I like it." Castle said, following her.

"Hm, maybe I should stop being spontaneous then." She joked, looking around backstage.

"This place seriously is baby proof." Castle said, touching the corner of a table full of props which was covered in foam.

"Look at this." Kate said, pointing over to the costume rack.

"What?" Castle walked over, carefully touching the black swan costume. Genuine feathers were stitched in, the fabric rough and the costume absurdly heavy. "How does she dance in this." He said, tracing the pattern of beads on the bust.

"I'm talking about the back." She said, turning the costume around to where there were a line of clasps.

"What about it?"

"Look at it, Castle, some of the stitching was cut, maybe it was cut with a pocket knife or something and it sliced through the skin of the dancer…possibly intentionally."

"What are you doing?" A shrill voice came from behind them.

"Detective Kate Beckett, NYPD, we're investigating the incident that happened last night." She said, remembering that most the people here were still unaware of the murders.

"It was an accident." Kate recognized the lady from last night who was screaming about the costume.

"Why is the stitching cut?" She asked, touching the back while Castle smoothed his fingers over some of the black feathers.

"Stop touching that. You'll get finger oil all over it." The lady snapped.

"I'm sorry." Castle said, backing off.

"Right. The stitching is cut because we had to cut her out of the tutu after the fitting, we just wanted to know how much stitching we'd need to use."

"When was the dress rehearsal?" Beckett asked.

"Juliet was fitted one last time just before the performance. If someone cut her out of it, she would know."

"Would anyone intentionally slice her back?"

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"Listen, I'm old. I don't know. I don't notice everything that happens around here, but I'm pretty sure no one would want to slice her back right before a show." She snatched the costume out of Beckett's hand.

"Okay, well thanks, that's all." Kate nodded her head, and motioned for Castle to follow her out.

They walked past several workers setting up sound systems, and other people cleaning off the floor of the stage.

"Seemed a little suspicious, don't you think?" Castle asked.

"We'll have to talk to someone who can be trusted about the situation, but for now, I'd like to go talk to the parents. They should be the first to know anyway." She got into the car, and waited for Castle the shut the door before speeding off into the streets.

"Where do they live?" He asked.

"South Jersey, Ryan got the info for me."

"Both of them?"

"Of course not. Then we'd just be lucky. Nicolette's parents live in South Jersey. Jason's in upper east of Manhattan. We're headed there now." She weaved skillfully through the traffic, getting honked at a total of twenty-two times.

They arrived at the door of a massive apartment building, the doorman stood by the revolving door, and his hands clasped together, his eyes clouded with boredom. They walked through, Kate flashing her pass on the way, avoiding any questions.

"Could you please tell us which floor Mr. and Mrs. Acorde live on?" She directed her question at the doorman she was avoiding earlier.

"You mean Mrs. Acorde. Mr. Acorde moved back to Southern California." The doormen corrected, before telling them that Mrs. Acorde lived on the seventeenth floor of the building.

Kate thanked him before heading through the golden elevator doors.

"So are we ever going to talk about last night?"

She didn't answer his question, just looked up at the numbers indicating the floor they were currently on.

"The Story, Brandi Carlile." She said randomly, leading Castle to remember their conversation the previous night. She strut out the door, going straight towards the apartment at the end of the hall.

She knocked forcefully. "Mrs. Acorde, open up, this is the police!" She said, leaning her wait impatiently onto one foot.

The door swung open, revealing a petite lady with dark brown hair. She looked fairly young for a woman who had a son nearing the age of twenty.

"Yes?" She asked, she still held a green watering can I her left hand.

"Hi. I'm Detective Kate Beckett, with NYPD," she paused to flash her badge. "Can we come in?" She asked, obviously not wanting to break the news to her at the door.

"Yes, yes." The woman opened the door wider for them to come in, setting aside the watering can on a wooden table near by.

"Is something wrong?" She asked, her face turning a shade paler.

"When was the last time you spoke to your son, Jason?" Kate asked stiffly.

"Um, I believe it was Monday night, last week, he had mentioned something about a girl and the show he needed to do. He said he was just checking in." Mrs. Acorde explained.

"Did he know anyone named Nicolette Burnstien?" Kate asked, her eyes focused on a random point in the distance, uncomfortable to make eye contact with the woman.

"Burnstien...highly doubt it. The name never came up."

"What about a Gianna Lyon?" Castle asked, looking up from his phone.

"Lyon, Gianna…yes. The French girl. They dated for a little bit before she vanished. A sad case she was, a very talented dancer." Mrs. Acorde nodded to herself.

"Both of them, meaning one of them your son, were found murdered at the ballet school. At different times. In different places, but the murders took place relatively close together, and we believe their related. We're sorry for your loss, but we were hoping you'd have some information that might help us catch the killer." Kate explained.

"He's still out there?" The woman sounded panicked.

"Unfortunately. But we're doing our bests to catch him as soon as possible, we were hoping you could help." Castle repeated what Beckett just said in attempt to calm the woman who was now tearing up.

Castle's phone rang loudly, breaking the tension in the room. He excused himself and walked outside, to answer it, leaving Kate with the mother.

"Castle." He said, pacing several steps from the door. "Oh yeah, one sec." He said, turning back around to go fetch Kate.

"Beckett." He said, motioning for her, diverging her away from the sobbing Mrs. Acorde. She nodded, and excused herself before vanishing out the door.

"Put me on speaker." Ryan's voice could be heard from the phone. Castle peeled the phone away from his ear, and hit the 'speaker' button and held it out in front of him and Kate.

"Did you know that Chater has your phone?" Ryan said, his voice restraining from laughing. Beckett looked shocked as she felt through all her pockets.

"Chater?" Beckett questioned.

"Lily." Esposito replied, as if it was the obvious.

"Yeah, I called and she answered." Ryan said.

"The Fuu-…" She stopped mid-sentence, finally accepting that the girl had indeed taken her phone.

"What's she doing with it?" She asked, frustration building in her voice.

"Ask her for yourself. She's right here." Ryan responded.

"Lily? What…how did you, why do you have my phone?" Beckett didn't really know where to begin.

"I didn't kill anybody." She stated first.

"What's going on then, this is highly illegal. Do you know that?"

"Check Castle's left jacket pocket." She said. Kate furrowed her brow and reached into his brown jacket pocket and pulled out an iPhone with a navy blue case, he looked confused as to how it got there in the first place.

"What now?"

"Turn it on." Kate waited a few seconds as the phone lit up.

"Punch in the code 2-7-2-9." She ordered as Kate punched in the numbers with her thumbs on the touch screen.

"Whose phone is this?" Kate searched for a name.

"Jason's"

"Why do you have his phone?" Castle inquired.

"I swapped phones with him because he was getting these threatening calls. I thought you guys might have already tried to track down his phone through his number, then I remembered only three people had the number to this phone, not including the guy with the threats. He used this other blackberry most of the time. Even his parents didn't have this number. But anyways, I started receiving these calls, on his phone of course, well you can trace them."

"Why didn't you tell us earlier."

"It never occurred to me."

"Lily, why are you so interested into feeding us information on this case."

"Because they said I'm next." With that she hung up, leaving Castle and Beckett confused, and startled. The two partners walked over to the elevator, silent as if they had both been jinxed.

"'…_all of my friends they think that I'm blessed_, _but they don't know my heads a mess…they don't know who I really am, they don't know me like you do?_'" Castle smirked as he quoted the song by Brandi Carlile that she had mentioned earlier on.

"Out of all the parts you had to choose that one."

"I think it suits you the most." He said. She smiled.

"What about you, Castle, what's your song?"

"I don't have a theme song."

"Have one by tomorrow." She said, just as Castle's phone started ringing.

"Castle." He answered.

"Hey, tell Beckett we've got another one."


	3. Petit Allegro

a/n: Clarification will be added the next Chapter. Yesh, I know it took awhile, I've been enjoying my summer. = ] Reviews are rays of sunshine. (cheesy x100000)

* * *

The sun was only beginning to set when they arrived on the crime scene. It would have been beautiful, really, the magnificent golden rays reflecting off the buildings as a rusty bronze was 'calendar picture' worthy. The only thing throwing off the scenery was the yellow caution tape surrounding the fountain in the middle of the campus, and not to mention the dead body lying halfway in the fountain, and halfway out.

The victim looked about twelve years old, much younger than the other two. Kate frowned, and watched as Castle followed suit, tilting his head to look at the body. Her eyes were closed, her face seemingly content as if simply asleep. Comparable to as if somebody would come and wake her up at any second, and tell her that she was late for class, and at that very moment she would stretch out of the water, and march away.

The killing would have been bloody, omitting the fact that the fountain was still running, and the water, though slightly red, had mostly washed the body clean.

"Beckett." Greeted Ryan who was standing by the fountain with a bored look on his face.

"Ryan. Is there a way we can turn this fountain off?" She asked, indicating to the water still running.

"I'll get right on it." He said, roaming away in the opposite direction of the crime scene.

"What happened here?" Castle stole the words out of her mouth.

Lanie was standing by the fountain herself, arms crossed, waiting for the water to turn off before she looked like she went dancing in the rain. Kate's friend looked at her before answering the question. "I can't really tell, not just yet." She replied honestly, shrugging her shoulders. "Did you talk to the parents?" She asked, continuing the conversation.

"We managed to talk to Mrs. Acorde, Jason's mother. Apparently, his father moved to California not too long ago. We're planning on trying to get a hold of him by phone." Kate answered.

"Haven't talked to the first victim's folks?"

"No. We know they reside in Jersey, but everything's been happening so fast." Castle answered the question instead of Beckett.

"Any suspects?"

"We haven't confirmed any yet. Routini's alibi was broken…"

"Beckett – we got the water." Ryan cut her off mid-sentence, and grinned, looking like he was proud of himself. Beckett mentally rolled her eyes, _'someone's been hanging around Castle way too much.' _She thought to herself. As if on cue, Lanie made her way over to the body, and knelt over it, taking samples with minute tools.

"How long is this going to take?" Castle asked out of nowhere, sounding like an impatient ten year old.

"Castle, this could take awhile, just be patient." Kate replied annoyed.

"Well, I was going to say, we could question Routini now, and come back later to take a look again, and then we could go to both the victim's families." He said. Kate looked up at him.

"Let me just get another look real fast, okay?" She asked, bending over next to Lanie.

Kate bent over the body, slipping on gloves, and poking and prodding at the clothing for anything suspicious.

"Let's get her ID, see if she was a student here, or someone visiting or something or other. We'll find out how she's connected to the other victims, and we'll go from there." With that said, she stood up and brushed pass Castle without another word, and naturally, he tailed behind, texting as he went.

* * *

Routini's office was adorned with awards of sorts and photos of alumni. The desk was neat, papers stacked carefully on top of each other. A silver plaque that read 'New York City Ballet,' occupied the area above the many filing cabinets

"Detective, whatever it is, please be quick about it, I have a flight to catch." Routini sounded grim, just as he did last time, but he looked slightly more comfortable in the environment of his own office.

"How quick, and smoothly this goes depends on your answer to the questions." Beckett replied a merciless look quickly swept across her face.

"Go on." Routini looked at her, matching her look.

"Where were you between the hours of four and six a.m. last Thursday?"

"Aren't we repetitive? I was sleeping. If you don't remember, I'm sure your little puppy over there will." He said, looking over to Castle who had a scowl on his face.

"You know what, my kitten and I think otherwise." She watched as Castle's jaw dropped.

"A cat is he now? What did he do that was disloyal? Ex-lover?" Routini smirked.

"If you want to be finished with this, I advise you answer the questions honestly." She said.

"What makes you think that my answers are fallacious?"

"A witness supplied us with the information that you were backstage during that time."

"Let's assume it's true."

"Is it?" Beckett looked at Castle who was being abnormally quiet, probably still recovering from the 'cat' and 'puppy' comments.

"We're assuming."

"Alright. So we're assuming you were backstage at that time. What are we assuming you were doing?" She crossed her arms across her chest.

"If I were backstage at the time, I would be talking to the ballet mistress, Petrova." He replied.

"Alright, what would you be talking to her about?"

"Juliet. The black swan from the other night's performance."

"Why would you be discussing Juliet?"

"We would be deliberating about how she wasn't suited for the part, or to be onstage at all. Especially on opening night."

"If you were backstage, why would you tell us that you were asleep?" Castle spoke this time, he had recovered.

"Because if I were backstage, and let's say that Petrova disagreed with me, I would have to talk to somebody, and I would have to have her off stage one way or another."

"So the bleeding was no accident?"

"If I were backstage at the time, no it would not be."

"If she was cut before she got on stage, why would she still go on?"

"Because she would know it was an accident, she would know better, and just do the ten minute dance." He had begun to stand up.

"Would you be worried about the reputation of the school?"

"No. The school always redeems itself. Such as California this week, I intend of watching some of the students take home another award."

"You told us you hand pick your dancers, if Juliet was that bad why is she in the company?"

"She was in corps. However, Petrova had her promoted some months ago. She's not actually that terrible, but Julliard needed to see a strong opening performance, with some of our youth dancers in a strong part…"

"Petrova refused to let Lily play lead?"

"In a sense, I owe a great deal to her mother, so I did what I had to do. I have a flight to catch, a flock of impatient dancers to deal with, and an award to win, and not to mention a school to keep on top. See yourself out." He said, motioning to the door. Neither Beckett nor Castle argued as they turned around walking out the door.

* * *

"You think he had something to do with the murder?" Castle asked.

"Hard to say, do you?" Kate replied.

"Is Kate Beckett really asking for her pet cat's opinion?" Castle raised his eyebrows.

"I don't know, Kitten, you tell me." She smirked.

"I think he's like Lily, nothing to do with it. We're looking too closely. Analyzing too deeply, we need to see the outside people." Castle said professionally, following her through the crowd of students.

"Well, we'll see."

They arrived back at the original crime scene, and Esposito and Ryan were standing there, questioning a red-headed guy who looked like he knew something about the victim. Kate could tell because immediately after they dismissed the boy, Ryan looked at Esposito with a quizzical look.

"What have we got?" Beckett formed a triangle with the two; Castle came up from behind, changing it into a trapezoid of some sort.

"Well," Esposito began, tossing Beckett the wallet, which she opened.

"Verity Miller." A small school ID sat inside with a couple of dollars.

"We figured she wasn't mugged because she was a middle school student. Her school's a couple blocks from here, so she must've walked over here for something, and someone had an eye on her."

"Connection to the other victims?" Beckett asked.

"None yet. Boy that just walked by said he saw her come by every once in awhile. He said that she came around after school with a pink skateboard, and a bright blue helmet."

"So someone at this school could have easily targeted her."

"Or someone outside." Castle reminded, referring back to his comment on the 'outer circle.'

"Should we go see the parents?" Esposito asked, hoping to push the case forward.

"I guess so, Ryan, do you have the addresses?" She asked.

"Yeah, boss." He said, snapping his fingers, and turning around to walk to the car.

"I thought you liked to break the news." Castle teased as they began to make their way across the campus.

"Nobody likes to, 'break the news,' Castle." She rolled her eyes.

"Then where are we going?"

"I need to talk to Lily, see if she knew this one too."

"I thought you said she didn't do it."

"No, I still don't think she did, but whoever did, knew her."

"Beckett, she's one of the best dancers in the school, of course people know her."

"Someone who knows her a little bit too well."

"Kate, she's had like what, a million and two boyfriends?"

"And you've had like what, a million three girlfriends? Do you remember them all? Vividly? Remember who they dated before you, their friends, who they talked to?" He scrunched up his face at her words. "Point." She said, and continued to walk on. They entered the studio they were in not so long ago. The dancers looked the same, clad in their navy blue leotards as if time had reversed itself.

"Are you a flying blue whale? A cow, perhaps, a flying cow, or a cow jumping off a cliff, is that, Isabella, what you are?" They intruded the class just as the teacher was screaming at the young girl doing jumps across the floor. Trying their best not to divert the class more than it looked like they already had, the two made their way across the floor to the screaming teacher.

"Detective Beckett, NYPD, we need to talk to your student, Lily." Beckett's eyes panned the room for the girl, but she was no where in site.

"Goodness interrupted the class just to talk to Lily who isn't even in this room. She takes company class. Upstairs, two doors down the hall, to the right. Massive room, lots of mirrors, can't miss it. Let's try again!"

"How do you think, it would be to grow up in an environment like this?" Castle asked spontaneously.

"I don't know, Castle, you see, I didn't quite grow up in an environment like this. Similar, but not exactly." She rolled her eyes as she gripped the handrail.

"It must be hard…"

"You know what's hard?!" She asked, frustrated with herself now.

"I could think of a couple answers to that…" He replied, smirking.

"Castle! Listen! We've been on this case for three whole days. Three different people are dead. A young girl is dead. We're still standing on square one. If we get anywhere within the next twelve hours, I will be a very, very angry woman!" Her voice was low, and she punctuated every syllable of each word.

"Yes ma'am." He said his smirk was now a flat line on his face.

* * *

The classroom was quiet when they arrived. Suitcases and duffle bags lined the walls, and each of the dancers were conversing quietly amongst themselves.

"Where are you guys going?" Castle asked, without any acknowledgement to Kate. He scanned the room for the teacher, but there clearly wasn't one, just the company and some of their youth members.

"We're going to a competition. In California." Replied a girl with platinum blonde hair. By this time, Kate had found Lily sitting in the corner, tucking her pointe shoes neatly away in her bag, and talking to the red-headed boy from earlier, and Emma.

"Lily, we need to ask you a few questions if you don't mind."

"Fuck my life." She said, rolling her eyes, standing up and following them out into the empty hallway.

"Do you recognize this girl?" Beckett held out the picture of the twelve year old victim from earlier.

"Um, I recognize her helmet?" She replied, taking the picture from Kate's hand and turning it in different angles.

"That's it? No name?"

"Nada. Sorry, Detective."

"You said you recognized her helmet? What do you mean?"

"She came by like everyday after school with her skateboard."

"Do you have any idea why she would be coming by every day? She didn't go to school here did she?"

"No. She didn't. I don't know. Siblings? Crush? I have no idea. Why are you asking me?" She furrowed her brows, and blew a stray hair out of her face in frustration.

"Because, Lily, you seem to be the only connection between the two victims."

"Me? Great. You think I killed three fucking people?"

"No. We don't, but you could really help on this case."

"Listen. I would love to help, but I can't because, in half an hour, I'm off to California. I don't want to live in New York forever. I have people to prove myself to. You have my cell number; just call me if you really think there's something I could help with." With that, she jaunted back to the studio; sending Castle and Beckett again back to square one.

"This case makes no sense." Beckett was grouchy, they still had no suspect.

"We'll piece this one together. We'll get there." He knew he had to give her her space.

"What's the story, Castle?" He looked at her. He opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by a shrill ringing coming from his pocket.

"It's Jason's." Kate said blandly, taking the phone from his pocket forcefully, and took a deep breath before answering it.

"Hel –." Her voice was cut off immediately, the deep voice filling up all the corners of her mind.

"_So many people I want dead.__ So little time. Stop watching the girl, because until further notice, she won't be next. So she can stop worrying. Temporarily." _The voice on the other line went dead.

"Was that a threat call?" Castle asked, though it was obvious.

"Castle. We have to deal with this. We don't know who's going to die next. It could be anybody. Anybody. I can't deal with four bodies right now. We have to figure this –." She was cut short by the obnoxious ringtone coming from Castle's phone.

"Castle." He answered, holding a finger up at her.

"Does fishing wire sound familiar, and toe shoes around the neck? Our killers run out of creativity." It was Ryan on the other line, feeding Castle information about a murder that took place recently, but far away from New York.

They arrived at the precinct minutes after the call. Beckett looked angrier than ever, causing even Castle to shut up and just follow behind her.

"Beckett." Esposito greeted, arms crossed and a frown on his face as well.

"Esposito." Beckett said back, silently ushering him to just give the details.

"San Francisco Ballet, murdered the same way that our first victim was murdered. The only thing is that we know for a fact that the NYCB Company is going to California today, along with their apprentice members.

"So aren't the police in San Francisco supposed to deal with this?"

"Technically yes, but they've connected it to the case we have, and technically, we have a lead."

"You know what, I'm going to re-look the case file, see if there was anything we missed. Call me if anything new comes up." Annoyed, Beckett grabbed a handful of case files and walked out the door, followed by Castle who looked back at Ryan and Esposito with a shrug.

* * *

The hours dragged by slowly and quietly, neither one of them said a word. It had finally reached midnight, and Beckett was beginning to loose interest in the case file she had just read for the billionth time. She looked over at Castle, not surprised to see him watching videos on youtube, either that or he was asleep. She really couldn't tell.

"Castle." She said, snapping him out of his trance.

"Yeah?" He asked, hoping that they had discovered something new.

"It's getting late, maybe we should go." She checked her watch.

"You're done?"

"I think so." Her voice was quiet, despite the fact that they were the only two in the precinct.

"Let's go for a walk." He said spontaneously, shutting his laptop screen.

"You're crazy. No." She shook her head as she began to clean up all the files.

"You know, bounce our ideas back and forth."

"We already did." She said sheepishly, standing up straighter.

"It's easier when you can actually breathe. It's so stuffy in here." He fanned himself with his hand for effect. "I think we need to do what we did in that case with the frozen woman." He said, a sheepish look crossing his face.

"Do what?" She inquired.

"Trace footsteps."

"That would make sense, if we had a suspect."

"We don't. But we do know," he paused to stand in front of her; just to be sure she wasn't running off anywhere. She rolled her eyes. "We have a theory. The theory…needs evidence. Our theory is that…whoever did the killing knows Lily. We concluded that they probably knew her well."

"That doesn't explain the twelve year old girl."

"I have a theory," Castle put emphasis on the word '_I,' _"that the girl with the helmet was just a distraction. A diversion. A way to diverge our thoughts from any connections to Lily." Castle was walking, slowly out the door into the dimly lit hallway, and Detective Beckett was subconsciously following…letting his words seep into her brain.

"This isn't one of your books, Castle."

"I _said _it was a theory. Theories can, as a matter of fact, be proven wrong." He threw his hands up in the air for emphasis. By this time, they had walked out the door, and his hand had found its way onto the small of her back after the frantic waving.

"I just don't see any motive."

"Fun?"

"Nobody kills for fun. There's got to be some kind of reason behind it."

"Uh hello, psychopath, the way he or she is killing, it certainly seems like they…really liked their sense of creativity." Castle was pushing for her to understand, even though he knew that she really did know what he was talking about, a hundred and ten percent.

They had made it down at least three blocks, only because when she was thinking she walked incredibly fast. She shivered. "You cold?" Castle asked.

"Nah," she said, shaking her nerves. "The thought of something treating killing as an art…is just…"

"Unbelievable, sick, twisted, horrific?" He offered an array of words.

"Yeah, somewhere along those lines." She says.

"Do you think it's someone in there?" He asks, referring to the school.

"No." She says honestly. "I don't see how it could be…they're, so close together. They suffer the same things everyday." She shrugged her shoulders and shuddered.

"So you believe me then, it's an outside factor or rather there is an outside factor."

"Yes. But we need solid evidence." She said, hoping to calm his ego.

"Yeah, yeah, but first we have to know what we're looking for." Castle pushed the calming of his ego obviously failed. "Beckett don't you ever think of things besides work?" He asked jokingly.

"Yes, but aren't we bouncing ideas of each other right now?" She said sarcastically.

"I suppose so." He answered sheepishly. "We have to get to California…" He said distantly.

"We are. We don't have a choice. Well actually, _I _don't have a choice. You can stay behind." She looked at him, her eyes slightly pleading.

"Very, very funny Miss. Beckett. I'm coming even if I have to handcuff you to me." He smiled a crooked smile.

"Oh, damn." She said, smiling a little as she snapped her fingers for effect.

"Who would these people encounter everyday?" He asked, pushing their conversation foreword.

"As in…who besides the people they go to school with, correct?" She asked.

"Yes…precisely." He wiggled his eyebrows, causing her to roll her eyes. "So we're students in ballet school. What time do we wake up everyday?"

"I'm guessing around 5:30 or 6 o'clock in the morning." Beckett replied.

"Okay, the first people we see?"

"Roommates."

"First 'outside factors?'" He asked, but before Beckett got a chance to answer, the shrill ring of his cell phone interrupted. "Castle." He answered casually.

"_72 hours, beginning tomorrow, you can have your little girl back. You will follow my instructions, beginning, now. If you fail to do so, her life will pay. Glad we've come to an understanding. See you at 3 a.m at SFO international airport. Don't be late." _The line went dead and Castle took a moment before building up the courage to snap the phone shut.

"We have to get to California." He said.

"Why?" Beckett asked, too smart to show any amusement.

"They have Alexis."

The phone rang again before Beckett could ask any more questions. He looked at the phone, but didn't answer it. Beckett looked at him, before gently prying the mobile device out of his hand and answering it for him.

"Castle's phone, Detective Beckett speaking." She answered.

"Beckett." Esposito's voice filled the line.

"We got a lead, how fast can you get to California?"


End file.
